How to De-Skunk Your Dog

Ewwww, skunk! Although it’s pretty funny in the cartoons, it’s not really funny if you or your dog ends up getting sprayed by a skunk in real life. Skunk spray penetrates and is very difficult to remove. We’ll be discussing some ways to get rid of that awful skunk smell, but first let’s look at some of the other things you need to check if your dog gets attacked by a skunk.

Be sure to look your dog over thoroughly, looking especially for any cuts or bites. Skunks can carry rabies, which is fatal to your dog if not treated, so you need to be sure. Examine the eyes and nose of your dog and clean anyway of the skunk residue that you can because it’s not only just irritating to your pet’s face but could also be extremely painful. Think of it like getting pepper-spray in your own eyes.

Alright, now we’ve got to get that awful smell out of the dog’s coat. It mattes itself into the fur or hair and is a devil to get rid of. The most time-tested way of getting rid of skunk smell is by using tomato juice. Did you ever see that old show The Partridge Family? There is one episode where the family dog got sprayed by a skunk and the whole tour bus and all of the family members got stinky. They stayed at a hotel room and ordered several hundred glasses of tomato juice so that they could each take a bath in it to try to get out the smell.

Take the tomato juice and work it into your dog’s coat. Scrub right down to the scalp and be sure to use plenty of tomato juice. Let the tomato juice stay on his fur for at least 5 minutes, then rinse him thoroughly. Next, shampoo your pet with regular pet shampoo and rinse thoroughly. Depending on your much spray hit your dog and how bad he smells; you might have to repeat this process a couple of times over the next day or so.

There is also an updated method of getting rid of skunk smell that is said by some to be better than the tomato juice method. What you’ll need is Hydrogen Peroxide 3% solution (1 quart), Baking Soda (1/4 cup), and Liquid Dish Soap (1 teaspoon). For this one, they recommend that you use rubber gloves. Mix all of the aforementioned ingredients in a container. It will get fizzy. Rub the mixture into your pet’s fur, avoiding getting it into his eyes, of course. Allow the solution to stay on your dog’s coat for a minimum of five minutes, then rinse. Repeat, if necessary. Throw away all of the unused solution.

Why does a skunk’s spray smell so bad? The here is a chemical compound in skunk spray that makes the smell so strong and so distinctive. These chemicals are called thiols and they are largely made up of sulfur, which as you know smells like rotten eggs or farts. To make matters worse, skunk spray has other chemical compounds that degrade into thiols, so they are like a slow-release stink that lingers on the object that was sprayed only to resurface again later. Skunks spray as a defense mechanism and can shoot their stinky oily liquid up to 12 feet away through the glands near their anus. Skunk odor can be smelled more than a mile away.

If none of your attempts to de-stink your dog works, neither the tomato juice nor the peroxide mixture, you might want to take your dog to a professional groomer or to your veterinarian.

Brain is an avid dog lover and a writer for Pet-Super-Store: a site where you can find great deals on dog shock collars.